Billie Eilish took home the prize for Song of the Year at the 2026 Grammy Awards — and the hitmaker didn’t hold back in her impassioned acceptance speech.
“Thank you so much. I can’t believe this,” Eilish, 24, said to the crowd while accepting the trophy alongside her brother, Finneas O’Connell, for their work on “Wildflower” at the Sunday, February 1, ceremony at the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles. “Everyone else in this category are so amazing. I love you so much. I feel so honored every time I get to be in this room.”
The singer-songwriter went on to make a political statement against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was partially bleeped out.
”And as grateful as I feel, I honestly don’t feel like I need to say anything but that no one is illegal on stolen land,” Eilish said to rapturous applause. “And yeah it’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now and I just feel really hopeful in this room and I feel like we need to just keep fighting and speaking up and protesting. Our voices really do matter and people matter.”
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The “Birds of a Feather” singer seemed to say “F*** ICE,” as her words were bleeped, before ending with, “That’s it, sorry.”
Both Eilish and O’Connell donned “ICE Out” pins, along with several other stars in attendance, including Carole King and Justin and Hailey Bieber.
Bad Bunny also received an enthusiastic response from the audience when he proclaimed, “ICE Out” during his acceptance speech for Best Música Urbana Album.
Eilish was up against several heavyweights in the Song of the Year category, including Lady Gaga for “Abracadabra,” Doechii for “Anxiety,” ROSÉ & Bruno Mars for “APT.,” Bad Bunny for “DtMF,” HUNTR/X for “Golden,” Kendrick Lamar and SZA for “Luther” and Sabrina Carpenter for “Manchild.”
Billie Eilish’s ‘Wildflower’ Wins Song of the Year at the 2026 Grammy Awards
The young singer’s win marks her 10th win of 34 nominations. She earned her first Grammy Award at just 17 years old, when she swept the Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year for her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
She followed it up with a Record of the Year win in 2021 for “Everything I Wanted” as well as the award for Best Song Written for Visual Media for “No Time to Die.” In 2024, she took home two Grammys for “What Was I Made For” from Barbie.
Her 2024 album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, nabbed seven nominations at last year’s ceremony, though it didn’t take home any prizes. “Wildflower,” the fourth single on that album, is eligible for the 2026 Grammy Awards because it was released as a single in February 2025, which falls in the eligibility period (August 31, 2024 — August 30, 2025) for the 68th awards ceremony.
“Wildflower” was also up for Record of the Year alongside Bad Bunny, Carpenter, Doechii, Gaga, Lamar and SZA, ROSÉ and Mars and Chappell Roan for “The Subway.”
Lamar and SZA ultimately took home the Record of the Year award for “Luther.”
